Darrell Ward of ‘Ice Road Truckers’ Dies in Plane Crash

The 52-year-old star of the History Channel's "Ice Road Truckers" and his co-pilot died in a plane crash on the way to shoot a new TV series in Montana.

Reality TV star Darrell Ward, who came to fame on the History Channel program Ice Road Truckers, died in a plane crash on Sunday, 28 August 2016 near Clinton, Montana. He was 52.

News of the fatal crash, in which Ward’s co-pilot also reportedly perished, came via a press release posted Sunday night on Darrell Ward’s Facebook page:

Press Release: It’s with great sadness to report we have lost our Montana Legend at the young age of 52.

Darrell Ward had just left The Great American Truck Show in Dallas, Texas where he enjoyed meeting numerous fans and friends and was heading to Missoula to begin filming a pilot for his new documentary style show involving the recovery of plane wrecks when he and his co-pilot crashed and lost their lives. An investigation is ongoing and more information will be made available at a later time as the National Transportation Safety Board will be handling they investigation.

Ward had recently finished filming the 10th season of Ice Road Truckers, which follows teams of truck drivers navigating treacherous routes over “ice roads” (frozen lakes) in northern Canada to haul cargo to remote communities, and was slated to begin filming another season in 2017.

According to KPAX-TV in Clinton, Montana, the Cessna 182 airplane Ward and his co-pilot were flying stalled and crashed on the shoulder of an interstate highway as it was attempting to land at a private airport at Rock Creek.